News Headlines

MPs warn 'urgent' funding needed to reverse prison decline

Prison inspectors need more funding to hold the government and prison bosses to account when jails have "urgent and serious failings", MPs have said.

A Justice Committee report comes after the BBC revealed the appalling conditions at Liverpool Prison.The MPs pointed out that inspectors had made recommendations in 2015 but it "did not result in improvements".

Thousands of prisoners will get out of jail early

Thousands more prisoners are to be released early under a government drive to relieve pressure on overcrowded and drug-ridden jails, The Times has learnt.

The Ministry of Justice has acted to significantly increase the number of inmates in an early release scheme after discovering that tens of thousands of eligible offenders — including those serving sentences for violence, robbery, burglary and public order crimes — were missing out.

Police and prosecutors' failures to disclose evidence, which have led
to the lapse of rape trials, are not limited to serious crime,
lawyers said after a harassment case was dropped.

Prosecutors
discontinued the case against Paul Baden, 56, from Rugby, who was
accused of harassing Julie Berriman, his er partner, with calls and
texts.

Police relied on photos they had taken of "unpleasant"
messages Miss Berriman had shown them on her phone. They did not examine
Mr Baden's mobile, which his lawyers say held evidence that would put
the messages into context, and repeatedly failed to answer the defence's
requests for the device.

Westminster council is proposing to freeze council tax and replace it with a voluntary contribution scheme after a consultation found ‘strong support’ for the idea.

The City Council will ask residents in the most expensive properties if they will consider voluntarily paying double the amount they would normally contribute in Westminster’s share of the council tax.

For 2018/19 this is £833 for Band H properties, which excludes the GLA element. However, any voluntary amount would be up to the contributor.

Police Demand
Justice system at 'breaking point' over digital evidence

Date: 12 Feb 2018

Public faith in the fairness of trials is being eroded and the justice system is approaching “breaking point” due to failures to disclose key digital evidence, the head of the criminal bar has said.

The comments from Angela Rafferty QC come as a leading forensic scientist, Dr Jan Collie, exposes the difficulties defence experts have in obtaining downloaded material from police and prosecutors, including dealing with “games” officers play in pursuit of convictions.

The police can be sued if suspects whom they are chasing injure members of the public, after a ruling by the Supreme Court.

It said a pensioner who was hurt and traumatised when she was crushed beneath officers struggling to arrest a suspect can sue for negligence. Elizabeth Robinson was 76 at the time.

The ruling, hailed by one legal expert as “the most important police law case for a generation”, prompted fears that it would result in “defensive policing”. Ian Skelt, a barrister at Serjeants’ Inn who represented police in the case said: “This potentially exposes the police to a wide liability.”

Policing, health and social care organisations have signed a national agreement to work more closely in the interests of protecting the UK’s most vulnerable.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), College of Policing and NHS England are among the 12 agencies to back the consensus, committing them to collaborate on identifying and supporting at-risk people.

The document also includes a joint focus on conducting earlier interventions before individuals reach a crisis point – potentially saving time and resources for all involved.

Police should look at using artificial intelligence to help cope with the scale of information involved in investigations and avoid the kinds of mistakes that have led to a string of collapsed rape trials, a senior police chief said on Wednesday.

Sara Thornton, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said the volume of data held by individuals had massively increased the number of potential lines of enquiry that officers must pursue to understand a case.

Belt-tightening, selling off assets and budget cuts have put the Cambridgeshire force under massive pressure - but its bosses have managed to keep the thin blue line shored up.

While other constabularies across have seen reductions in the percentage of neighbourhood police officers slashed, the Cambridgeshire force has seen a reduction of just 3.6 per cent - from 528 in 2013 to 509 last year (2017), a loss of 19.

The vast majority of companies set up to tackle reoffending as part of a controversial drive to privatise the probation service have failed to meet their targets, in a substantial embarrassment for the government.

Dramatic official figures have revealed that only two of the 21 regional companies set up to oversee low and medium-risk offenders have managed to reduce the number of new offences committed by reoffenders.

The revelation comes amid claims that the probation system is in crisis. Senior figures in the service warn that the companies involved lack the resources to do the job, while staff shortages have already meant that some ex-offenders are supervised by telephone calls.

Police Finances
Drugs trial at risk of collapse over £14 memory stick: Police say they cannot hand over evidence because they could not afford device to put it on

Date: 02 Feb 2018

A major drugs trial is danger of collapse after police refused to hand over key evidence – saying they could not afford a £14 memory stick on which to put it.

In the latest in a string of disclosure blunders by police and prosecutors, Woolwich Crown Court heard how the trial of two men, implicated in a multi-million pound drug plot, could be at risk of collapse over the penny-pinching.

Yesterday, Judge Philip Shorrock blasted the authorities for failing to stump up ‘the pootling sum’ for a USB memory stick, on which could be stored the images and video clips urgently needed by the defence.

Liberty, the human rights campaign group which represented Watson in the case, said the ruling meant significant parts of theInvestigatory Powers Act 2016 – known as the snooper’s charter – are effectively unlawful and must be urgently changed.

The government defended its use of communications data to fight serious and organised crime and said that the judgment related to out of date legislation. Minister Ben Wallace said that it would not affect the way law enforcement would tackle crime.

The number of prosecutions in England and Wales that collapsed because of a failure by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence increased by 70% in the last two years. Last year, 916 people had charges dropped over a failure to disclose evidence - up from 537 in 2014-15.

It comes after recent collapsed rape cases highlighted a failure to share evidence with defence solicitors.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been urged to consider a gun crime strategy for the capital, following a steep rise in the number of offences and fears that victims and perpetrators are getting younger.

The Metropolitan police recorded 2,542 gun crime offences in 2017, the highest number in five years and 44% more than the 1,755 recorded in 2014, according to a report by the London assembly’s police and crime committee.

Data from two thirds of police forces obtained through freedom of information legislation shows that across England and Wales the number of reports under the act rose from 469 in the financial year to 31 March 2016 to 1,214 in the same period a year later and 1,042 in the eight months to November 2017.

But during this period the total number of charges declined, from 94 to 43, with 4.13% of cases leading to formal action in 2017 – down from 7.58% the year before.

The Police ICT Company should be at the heart of all developments and create an environment in which poor quality IT is no longer acceptable, according to its new chief executive.

Ian Bell, currently the director of National Enabling Programmes (NEP) and former chief information officer of the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire tri-force ICT collaboration, has been appointed to lead the company from next month.

Police Finances
Council tax is a regressive tax - it's time to do something

Date: 18 Jan 2018

As all of the organisations concerned with local delivery of vital public services – it is time for a concerted, collective campaign on future funding for local services.

It is not enough to rely on repatriation of business rates – itself an outdated property tax which fails to reflect the modern dot.com. gig economy era. council tax too, if it is to survive, must be made fit for purpose.

That we are employing people to translate property values back to 1991 – over a quarter of a century ago – is beyond belief.

The rise of 20mph zones across the UK means speed awareness courses now net the police £57m every year, new figures show.

Attendance at the courses, which are offered to drivers caught speeding in 20mph zones, doubled last year to more than than 34,000, up from 17,000 in 2016, according to an analysis of data from the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS).

The number of people choosing to attend the 20mph course rather than receive three points and a £100 fine has doubled year-on-year since 2014, when figures were first recorded.

Fire
The Conservatives are accused of misleading the public over fire funding

Date: 12 Jan 2018

Labour have accused the Tory Home Secretary of trying to "hoodwink the public" after she claimed Fire Services have an "enormous" pile of cash reserves.

Amber Rudd made the boast to claim cash-strapped authorities "have the resources they need" after the number of firefighters fell 16% in five years. Ms Rudd told MPs this week that fire authorities are sitting on a £615million pile of cash reserves, up 88% since 2011.

Northgate Public Services has been acquired by NEC Corporation for £475 million. The deal, announced today (Tuesday, January 9), delivers “significant technological advantages” for Northgate with NEC’s cutting-edge biometric scanning and facial recognition products being integrated into some of the company’s core software platforms.

Murder rates in America’s largest cities fell to historic lows last year as the police used technology to monitor gun violence and predict crime hotspots.

In New York 290 murders were recorded last year, the lowest since comparable records began in 1951 and a near 90 per cent decrease from 1990, when a record 2,262 people were killed. In Los Angeles there were 281 murders last year, compared with 1,094 in 1992.

Around 200 Met Police officers are continuing work on the criminal probe into the fire, which killed 71 last June.

The force has made a request to the Home Office to fully fund the £27 million cost of the inquiry in the coming financial year and a further £11.1 million is also being sought to cover extra hours put in by investigators so far.

The war on powerful crime syndicates has been hampered by cuts to neighbourhood policing even though the threat outstrips that from terrorism, a senior officer has said.

Bobbies on the beat deliver crucial intelligence and help to combat a culture of silence in communities blighted by gang violence, extortion and drug addiction, Chief Constable Andy Cooke, who co-ordinates the fight against serious organised crime, said.

He added that the rising tide of violence, including knife and gun crime, as well as the associated rise in drug deaths, made organised crime the greatest threat facing Britain.

Failures to provide adequate sanitary protection to woman and girls in police custody breaches their human rights, the home secretary has been warned by an independent watchdog.

The Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) has written to Amber Rudd and Justine Greening, the women and equalities minister, calling on them to improve conditions for female suspects held in police cells.

Successive inspections of police stations by visitors, the letter alleges, has found that the needs of menstruating women in police detention are routinely ignored.

Failures to provide adequate sanitary protection to woman and girls in police custody breaches their human rights, the home secretary has been warned by an independent watchdog.

The Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) has written to Amber Rudd and Justine Greening, the women and equalities minister, calling on them to improve conditions for female suspects held in police cells.

Successive inspections of police stations by visitors, the letter alleges, has found that the needs of menstruating women in police detention are routinely ignored.

Drug dealers are increasingly using the post to send large consignments of cannabis around the UK in efforts to evade checks at ports, police have warned.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Border Force officials have recently intercepted several packages, including a parcel containing herbal cannabis worth £60,000 destined for an address in Belfast.

Internet companies should face a tax punishment for failing to deal with the threat of terrorism in the UK, security minister Ben Wallace has said.

Mr Wallace said firms such as Facebook, Google and YouTube were too slow to remove radical content online, forcing the government to act instead. While tech firms were "ruthless profiteers", governments were spending millions policing the web, he added.

Almost three-quarters of the population think the police are effective at responding to emergencies.

Research commissioned by HMICFRS has found that public confidence in the police is high. Respondents who said they are confident in law enforcement’s ability to protect them from terrorism has risen to 55 percent compared to 46 percent the year before.

Low-level drug dealers taken into custody will be given the opportunity to avoid prosecution.

Durham’s Chief Constable Mike Barton told Police Oracle vulnerable people forced into a situation where they sell drugs will be better off undergoing a programme rather than being dealt with by the Crown Prosecution Service.

A £3.5 million inquiry into one of Britain’s most notorious crime gangs collapsed after multiple claims of police corruption, an investigation by The Times has revealed.

Officers from Greater Manchester police were accused of taking bribes from associates of Paul Massey, the underworld “Mr Big” who was murdered in Salford two years ago. The allegations emerged during Operation Holly, a five-year inquiry into money laundering, fraud and tax offences, which centred on a security company for which Massey, 55, was a consultant. Detectives believed that he was a “shadow director” for 21st Security Ltd and that it was used to launder funds and disguise the gang’s gains.

A potential £450m in extra funding for police in England and Wales in the next financial year has been announced by the Home Office.

Police and crime commissioners are to be given the power to raise the portion of council tax which goes towards policing by £12 per household annually. That would raise £270m, while £130m for national priorities, such as firearms, would come from central government.

The number of reported cases of child sexual abuse in the UK rose by almost a third last year, according to NSPCC figures that the charity described as “deeply worrying” but said showed a greater public willingness to report the problem.

The charity said it referred an average of 90 calls a week to police and social services over concerns that a young person had been sexually assaulted. This was an increase of 31% on the year before.

The justice secretary has said more inmates should be allowed to "commute" to work from jail.

In an effort to reduce the prison population, Mr Lidington (Justice Secretary) also suggested that more prisoners could be released early, after a risk assessment, and finish their sentences wearing electronic tags.

A judge has called for an inquiry after the trial of a student accused of rape collapsed because police had failed to reveal evidence proving his innocence.

Liam Allan, 22, spent almost two years on bail and three days in the dock at Croydon crown court before his trial was halted yesterday.

The judge demanded a review of disclosure of evidence by the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest force, and called for an inquiry at the “very highest level” of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). He warned of the risks of “serious miscarriages of justice” after hearing that, to save costs, material was not always handed to defence lawyers.

White suspects stopped and searched for drugs are more likely to be carrying them than black people, the police watchdog said yesterday.

A third of white suspects searched for drugs were found to be carrying them, whereas a quarter of black people stopped by officers were found to be in possession of them.

The “troubling” disparity, which for years has been raised as a concern in black communities, was highlighted in a report on stop and search released yesterday by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

Police Demand
New regulations come into effect as â€˜thousands potentially detained for too long under mental health lawsâ€™

Date: 12 Dec 2017

Thousands of people with mental health issues may be being held in custody for longer than the law allows.

A lack of hospital beds meant forces “felt obliged” to detain people for more than 24 hours at least 264 times between October and December last year, figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) show.

The true rate may be even higher as less than half of forces responded to the request – and the NPCC estimates there could be more than 2,000 cases each year.

Hundreds of sex offenders are being released from jail despite posing a risk to the public due to “shocking” failings by a major prison, a damning report has revealed.

An inspection of HMP Dartmoor, which holds high-risk offenders, found that it was failing to protect the public because of “unplanned, rushed and poor” release planning, with many sex offenders subsequently leaving without having sufficiently addressed their behaviour.

Inflation rose to 3.1% in November, the highest in nearly six years, as the squeeze on households continued. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that airfares and computer games contributed to the increase.

The most recent data shows that average weekly wages are growing at just 2.2%.

Billions of pounds have been laundered through the City of London, despite Britain remaining one of the safest and cleanest places in the world to do business, the home secretary has said.

Amber Rudd issued the warning as she announced plans for a new national economic crime centre, with the power to task the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the worst cases of fraud, money laundering and corruption.

The number of domestic violence incidents going unattended by police is soaring, with the worst performing forces now missing a quarter of call-outs, damning statistics obtained by The Independent reveal.

The proportion of incidents where officers failed to show up more than doubled between 2012 and 2016 – from 5 per cent of cases to 11 per cent – responses to Freedom of Information requests from police forces across England showed.

New leads in unsolved murders and sex crimes may be going unnoticed due to growing backlogs in cases submitted for analytical support.

Nearly 8,000 cases submitted to the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) are still awaiting input – up from 6,000 in 2011 – and more than half have not been analysed, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found.

Hundreds more cases identified as severe enough over the last two years have not been submitted to SCAS as police forces struggle to manage them within a 20-day deadline.

Three police forces are considering plans to give guns to some uniformed bobbies on the beat in order to respond more quickly to a crisis situation, such as a terrorist attack.

The forces concerned are predominantly rural, and senior officers believe that their geography could mean that the current system of specialist firearms officers could lead to delays in getting them to the scene.

Police Finances
Use of reserves to support front line 'can not continue beyond 2020'

Date: 08 Dec 2017

A comprehensive survey of police and crime commissioners (PCCs) shows widely disproportionate benefits of increasing the council tax precept and reveals hundreds of millions of pounds are being taken from reserves to support frontline policing.

Responding to a request by the Home Office for greater transparency on reserves as part of discussions on future police funding, PCCs have provided a detailed analysis that shows they are maintaining the minimum required in general reserves while the amount they hold for medium term budgets, change programmes and capital projects is reducing dramatically as it is used to support day to day activities.

Plans that could see fire and rescue authorities outline reasons for refusing police crime commissioners’ request to join as voting member are under consultation.

As part of a government strategy of a government strategy to encourage emergency services to work more closely together, Policing Minister Nick Hurd wants all PCCs to have the option of being appointed to their fire authority, consultation papers revealed this week.

The police helicopter service in England and Wales fails to get air support to thousands of incidents before they have ended and needs "urgent reform", a report says.

The HM Inspector of Constabulary said helicopter flying hours had nearly halved since 2009, and 24,873 missions were cancelled mid-flight in 2016. The report also said the cost of flight hours had more than doubled since 2009.

Further deep cuts in spending on some public services are already planned to go ahead, whatever the chancellor announces in the autumn budget, leaving departments such as justice and work and pensions facing a real-terms cut of as much as 40% over the decade to 2020.

An analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, confirmed by recent parliamentary answers, shows that for welfare spending, the NHS and the prison system, the budget on Wednesday will not represent an end to the age of austerity experienced since the Conservatives entered government in 2010.

Police Finances
Police 'to give up on minor crimes without major funding increase'

Date: 15 Nov 2017

More forces are poised to give up investigating minor offences such as car crime and retail thefts without a significant funding increase in the budget next week, PCCs have warned.

The home affairs select committee was told on Tuesday that forces across England and Wales will lose a further 6,000 officers by 2020 without an urgent cash injection.

Kathryn Holloway, the Conservative PCC for Bedfordshire, told MPs her county risked becoming the “retail theft capital of the UK” because the local force could no longer afford to attend retail thefts of less than £100. Bedfordshire police will also not attend vehicle crime such as thefts from cars, she said.

Police will have £700m less a year to fight crime in the coming years, and fewer officers too, despite forces already being under “significant stress”, the emergency services watchdog said on Wednesday.

According to the police inspectorate, all forces will spend £12.3bnin 2017/18, but that is projected to fall by 6% to £11.6bn by 2020/21

A force plans to scrap its neighbourhood policing operation, replacing it with, what it calls, prevention teams.

Sussex Police says this will offer a more flexible and scientific approach to the way it detects and tackles crime. It says the newly formed teams, made up of PCSO’s, officers and staff will more efficiently by opting for a more intelligence based approach.

Police investigations into children sharing sexual images of themselves and others have more than doubled in two years, figures have shown. Forces in England and Wales recorded 6,238 underage "sexting" offences in 2016-17, a rate of 17 a day.

The number of cases where under-18s were sharing indecent or prohibited images was up by a third on the 4,681 offences recorded the previous year, and represented a 131% rise on 2014-15, with 2,700 incidents.

Police Finances
Call for national roll-out of local transformation projects

Date: 03 Nov 2017

Local transformation projects need to be scaled up to make them truly effective, the chair of the Police Reform and Transformation Board has said.

Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner (PCC) Paddy Tipping believes a “bottom-up” approach to using the Police Transformation Fund has led to smaller programmes being financed and limited their national effectiveness.

Police Finances
Cash over kids? Cuts mean London police will close stations in face of soaring gun & knife crime

Date: 02 Nov 2017

Hundreds of teenagers have been stabbed in Britain’s capital – 74 people killed in 2017 – but just days after the death of the latest young victim, it has emerged police are planning to have just one station that opens for 24 hours in every borough of the city.

In order to reach targeted savings of £400 million by 2021, police stations are set to be shut, leaving just one per borough which is permanently open.

Scotland Yard will be unable to provide some services at all in future if budget constraints force the number of officers in the capital to fall as low as is feared, a senior officer has warned.

On Monday, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the Metropolitan police could end up with fewer then 27,500 officers by 2021 – the smallest number in nearly two decades – as a result of the financial pressures it is facing.

Police Finances
England and Wales police in need of Â£1.3bn to tackle crime and terrorism

Date: 30 Oct 2017

Police forces in England and Wales will need nearly Â£1.3bn extra between 2018 and 2020 to tackle crime, police and crime commissioners have said.

They attributed the need for more funding to the increasing quantity and complexity of crimes being committed, as well as the threat posed by terrorism. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APPC) said an extra Â£440m would be required in 2018-19 and Â£845m more in the following financial year.

The extra money would pay for 5,000 more officers to deal with new types of crime, as well as an additional 1,100 armed police force members.

Suffolkâ€™s crime chief has sworn to protect support officers despite being forced into a â€˜tight cornerâ€™ over government funding.

Tim Passmoreâ€™s pledge came as Norfolk Constabulary proposes axing all 150 PCSOs to save Â£1.6m. However, the police and crime commissioner admitted facing â€˜unpalatable decisionsâ€™ if the government fails to answer his call for more money.

Prisons
Prisons in England and Wales â€˜underfunded and full to burstingâ€™

Date: 10 Oct 2017

Andrea Albutt, president of the Prison Governors’ Association has said that prisons in England and Wales are “full to bursting”, underfunded, understaffed and recent reforms have “failed miserably” to address problems with the service.

Official figures show the prison population is 86,250 - just 1,211 short of the useable operational capacity.

A petition calling for a register of serial stalkers has been given to the Prime Minister.

More than 130,000 people signed the document organised by stalking advocacy service Paladin, which wants offenders and domestic violence perpetrators to be included on ViSOR (the Violent and Sexual Offenders register).

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced a new national hub to tackle the emerging threat of online hate crime. It will ensure better support for victims and help drive up the number of prosecutions.

The hub, run by police officers for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), will work to ensure online cases are managed effectively and efficiently.

It will clearly set out the force responsible for further action in each case, removing any uncertainty which could arise when, for example, a victim is located in one area, with the alleged perpetrator in another.

A new national police hub is to be set up to crack down on those who commit online hate crime.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a series of measures, which will include improved support for victims and a drive to increase the prosecution of those who abuse other internet users based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender.

Social media giants including Facebook and Twitter have come under fire for not doing more to crack down on offenders amid fears the cost of policing the internet could prove a drain on scarce resources following sweeping cuts in police forces across the UK since 2010.

Police forces are not doing enough to stop their officers carrying out sexual abuse, the official watchdog has said.

The finding by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) comes despite previous interventions from the watchdog and high-profile cases of police officers committing sexual abuse.

Police are to work with the Conservatives to review their conference security after a well-known comedian was able to hand the Prime Minister a mock P45 unemployment notice.

Interrupting Theresa May's keynote speech to Tory members in Manchester, Lee Nelson - real name Simon Brodkin - approached the podium to hand the Prime Minister the fake document before being led away.

Conservative MPs voiced their concerns over the prank, as party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin and Home Secretary Amber Rudd promised a full inquiry.

Police Finances
Pay cap must be lifted for all Police personnel, unions say.

Date: 03 Oct 2017

The government needs to come up with the cash to fund a decent pay rise for police staff this yeart or jobs and services will be cut, the BMG, UNISON and Unite and warned.

Forces say without extra money from the Home Office, they are not in a position to make, or even discuss, a pay offer this year for PCSOs, 999 call handlers, investigators or the many other police staff in England and Wales.

Police Demand
Cyber-security: More than 1,000 attacks reported in centre's first year

Date: 03 Oct 2017

More than 1,000 incidents were reported to the National Cyber Security Centre in its first year of operation.

The centre - part of the intelligence agency GCHQ - says more than half the incidents posed a significant threat. None of the incidents were category one level involving interference with the democratic system or crippling critical infrastructure such as power.

But NCSC head Ciaran Martin warned there could be more significant and damaging attacks in the near future.

More than 900 people in Scotland have been told over the past two years that their partner has an abusive past, as a result of “Clare’s Law”.

On the second anniversary of the Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse Scotland (DSDAS), Police Scotland said that 2,144 requests had been made under the scheme.These led to 927 people being told that their partner had a history of abusive behaviour.

Roger Hirst, was elected to become Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex in May 2016. He then took on his new role as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex on the 1st of October.

He is the first PCC in the country to take on the governance of the fire and rescue service as well as the police. It mean's he'll be responsible for setting the strategy and budget of the fire service in Essex.

Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner has written to the Home Secretary to press for more Government funding to address the force’s “perilous financial position.”

Dame Vera Baird has demanded extra funding for Northumbria Police to pay for the two per cent pay rise announced for police officers. The Government recently announced it would lift the public sector pay cap for police and prison officers. But the commissioner said the force had only budgeted for a one per cent pay award across the board, and to increase that by an extra one per cent would cost £1.55m.

A second police force is facing investigation after a man died in an armed police shooting near Bristol. Officers opened fire on a car near junction 19 of the M5 at 09:30 BST on Wednesday, according to an eyewitness.

West Mercia Police said it received a call at 08:30 about a driver pointing a gun on the M5 in Worcestershire. The force has reported itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which said it was "assessing the referral".

Grant funding of £600,000 has been awarded to four charities to help victims of child sexual abuse.

The funding, awarded to the National Association of People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), Barnardo’s, Rape Crisis England & Wales, and Safeline Warwick, will help them provide vital services including developing services for boys impacted by child sexual abuse, boosting rape support centres, and expanding an online counselling service for victims of child sexual abuse.

Police Demand
Burglaries may get 'lighter approach' as police chief admits staff at breaking point

Date: 20 Sep 2017

One of Britain's biggest police forces is warning it has reached tipping point due to financial pressures and an ever-increasing workload.

The Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police admitted that crimes such as burglaries may no longer be treated as a priority because of increasing demands from mental health patients, missing people and the threat of online extremism.

Forces need to stop wasting their budgets on outdated computer systems and invest in new technology.

A new report by think tank The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says many police hours are wasted carrying out basic data management tasks, due to severe deficiencies in the forces’ digital infrastructure.

MPs have urged the justice secretary, David Lidington, to rewrite “extremely damaging” official guidance that means children as young as 12 could be held responsible for their own sexual abuse.

New rules the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) have drawn up mean some child victims of sexual assault could be refused compensation on the grounds that they “consented” even if their abuser has been jailed.

An extra £24 million is to be pumped into counter-terrorism policing in the wake of this year’s terror attacks, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced today.

The move comes as the investigation into Friday’s incident in Parsons Green continues.

The entirely new funding, which is in addition to £707 million already announced to support counter terrorism policing in 2017/18, will be used to bolster protective security measures in crowded places. This will include helping to protect the public from the specific threat of vehicles being used as weapons.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been urged to pass on the cost of policing the world’s biggest arms fair to its organisers, with more than 100 protesters arrested so far.

More than £1.1m was spent deploying police officers to counter protests at the last Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair in 2015, according to figures released to Siân Berry, the Green party’s London assembly member.

The Government have confirmed that Police officers will receive a 2% pay award from 1 September 2017. This will be split between the 1% that was expected in addition to a 1% non-consolidated pay award for 2017/18. This will be funded from ‘existing departmental budgets.’ . The federation asked for a 2.8% increase, 0.1% under the most recent inflation figures.

Fire
PCCs divided over fire governance as less than a quarter propose takeover

Date: 12 Sep 2017

Just eight police and crime commissioners (PCCs) – all Conservatives – have proposed a change of governance in their fire and rescue service, while the majority decide to take a seat on the fire authority or make no changes at all.

Earlier this year, the Policing and Crime Act 2017 received Royal Assent, allowing PCCs to take responsibility of the fire and rescue service in their area, and giving them a similar oversight to the police service.

However, no Labour or Independent PCCs will be proposing a takeover any time soon, and the eight Conservatives make up less than half of the party’s representatives.

Union leaders are demanding a 5% pay increase for all public sector workers and threatening co-ordinated strike action against the government’s pay cap.

Amid growing expectation that the cap will be lifted soon for police and prison officers, representatives of 13 unions agreed at the TUC conference that money needed to be found to retain and reward millions of nurses, teachers, council staff and civil servants.

The weaker pound is failing to boost U.K. growth, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.

The business group downgraded its medium-term outlook for the economy in a report on Friday, citing a weaker-than-expected contribution from trade and subdued consumer spending. Inflation will outpace wage growth until 2019, the BCC forecast, continuing the squeeze on shoppers’ pockets that weighed on performance in the first half of 2017.

Police Scotland are using an Israeli based technology firm to crack the security protections on a growing number of mobile phones each year.

Freedom of information requests show that in the last three years Police Scotland have successfully obtained data from at least 35,973 phones, with each one taking around eight days to analyse. In the same period the police tackled 16,587 computers.

But as mobile devices hold the key to an increasing amount of data about people’s lives, civil liberties groups and academics have called into question whether the laws that regulate police access to mobile phone data are fit for purpose.

Police Finances
Minister says he would be â€˜irresponsibleâ€™ to ignore good merger cases

Date: 05 Sep 2017

If there is as support for a reduction in the number of police forces, the Policing Minister says he would “irresponsible” to ignore it.

Chief Supt Gavin Thomas, President of the Police Superintends’ Association of England and Wales b believes that the current force arrangement are “sub-optimal” with collaboration often being used to cover this.

Police are facing a “perfect storm” of staff cuts, new threats and a rise in crime, with many now feeling overworked and showing symptoms of mental ill health, according to a senior officer.

Ch Supt Gavin Thomas, the president of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales, said a confluence of pressures was leaving forces reliant on fewer officers working longer hours.

Half of senior officers have symptoms of anxiety, and 27% show signs of depression, a survey for the association found. Four-fifths say the depth and breadth of their responsibilities leads to them working excessive hours.

An environmental campaigner who was deceived into forming a long-term intimate relationship with a police spy is refusing to pay Scotland Yard a £7,000 legal bill incurred during her quest for the truth.

Helen Steel fought a four-year legal battle against police chiefs who were eventually compelled to apologise unreservedly for the abuse and emotional trauma she suffered from the deception.

Scotland Yard increased the amount it spent on weapons and ammunition last year to almost six times the sum the previous year, it has been disclosed.

The Metropolitan Police spent £9.4 million on guns, bullets, Tasers and smoke and stun grenades in the year to March compared with about £1.6 million over the previous 12 months, according to data acquired through a freedom of information request.

The figures for firearms spending rose to £5.7 million, nearly five times the total spent over the preceding six years.

The government is facing a multibillion-pound shortage of funding for new schools, hospitals and social housing after a decision by the world’s biggest public lender to freeze its UK operations because of Brexit.

The decision was taken after the government triggered Article 50 in March. Since then only three UK projects have had funding signed off and no projects have been financed since June.

Police and Crime General
Armed soldiers to go undercover in crowds at Notting Hill Carnival and Reading and Leeds music festivals

Date: 21 Aug 2017

Undercover armed soldiers will mingle in crowds at some of August bank holiday's biggest events amid fears of another terror attack.

Plain-clothed troops carrying hidden guns will pose as ordinary members of the public at Notting Hill Carnival as well as the Leeds and Reading music festivals as the UK threat level remains at “severe”.

It comes after ISIS claimed responsibility for two more terror attacks which happened in Spain's Barcelona and Cambrils last Thursday evening.

The chairman of the Civil Nuclear Police Federation has urged the government to provide clarity on the proposed creation of a national infrastructure police.

Mark Nelson says the federation and sister federations were told the idea was being looked at a year before a series of meetings were held at which they were informed it was not going to happen and the forces would continue to collaborate.

However, after the idea emerged again in the Conservative manifesto before the 2017 General Election and the ensuing result hobbled the Tories, the chairman is seeking clarification on whether the merger is “on the table or off the table”

Police forces have spent nearly £23 million on body cameras even though trials have raised questions about their effectiveness and suggested that they do little to reduce crime, according to a report published today.

Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties and privacy organisation, found that 32 of the 45 police forces in the UK had adopted body cameras but that forces were unable to say how often the footage had been used in the courts. Nearly 48,000 cameras have been purchased for use by officers, the group said.

Fire
Firefighters could join missing person searches as police bosses take over brigades

Date: 14 Aug 2017

Firefighters are set to be used in roles traditionally reserved for police officers such as the search for missing people as police commissioners take over the brigades.

The services will be expected to work closer together in a move likely to see them sharing premises, call centres and in some cases community roles.

It comes as councils, who in many areas control the fire service, are accused of siphoning off cash destined for the front line to "prop up" other services including the burgeoning adult social care bill.

All of a sudden Britain has become the slowest growing of the major western economies, and there are increasing concerns about its medium-term outlook. Iain Begg (LSE European Institute) writes that with both government and opposition fixated on what kind of Brexit to favour, there is a growing risk that fundamental and necessary measures to underpin the economy will be neglected.

Illegal drugs remain widely available despite the billions of pounds spent trying to enforce laws prohibiting them, according to an official evaluation of a government anti-drug strategy.

An estimated £1.6 billion was spent on enforcement in 2014-15 but the study said that actions by the police and other arms of the state had little impact on availability. “It appears that drugs are still widely available to those who want them,” the cross-government audit of the effects in England of the five-year 2010 drug strategy concluded.

On Friday [04-07-17], the Home Secretary announced the first tranche of bids that will be awarded funding under the 2017/18 Police Transformation Fund.

More than £20 million has been awarded over three years from the fund, to help combat the online grooming of children for sexual exploitation. The funding will enable a successful pilot led by Norfolk Police – which saw officers going undercover in online forums and chatrooms to identify and disrupt offenders – to be rolled out across the country.

Cyber crime: Britainâ€™s public bodies hacked more than 400 times in the last three years

Date: 23 Jul 2017

The computer systems of dozens of public bodies from hospitals and councils to museums and watchdogs have been breached more than 400 times in the last three years by cyber criminals seeking to extort money, cause disruption or extract data

London Fire Brigade is seeking more than £900,000 from Whitehall to pay lawyers’ bills for the Grenfell Tower public inquiry and expected legal action arising from the blaze.

The formal request says the brigade faces huge legal costs for the inquiry and in “managing subsequent litigation”. It adds: “Resourcing this to a high standard is essential to protect the brigade, the [fire] authority and their reputations.”

Police Demand
Government to overhaul 'out of date' police funding system

Date: 20 Jul 2017

The system used to decide how much money police forces receive is to be overhauled, the government has announced.

Ministers say they want to replace the “out-of-date” funding model with a simplified version. They will consult on proposals to tie the sums given to forces in England and Wales to factors such as the size of an area’s population.

The new system will also take into account “underlying characteristics” of the local population and “environmental” factors – such as whether there is a busy town centre.

Scrapping the 1% pay increase cap for public sector workers could cost the Treasury £6bn a year by 2019/20, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies research.

The think-tank has today published analysis which shows that raising public sector pay in line with inflation or private sector pay would cost around £3bn a year in 2018/19, rising to around £6bn a year the following year.

This would be extra expenditure on the £181bn the government spends annually on employing 5.1 million public sector workers

There has been a “staggering” decline in standards and safety at youth jails in England and Wales, the chief inspector of prisons has said.

Peter Clarke, the former Metropolitan police head of counter-terrorism, said no young offender institution or privately run secure training centre officially inspected in early 2017 was safe to hold children and young people.

A radical opinon piece of 'open democracy' makes for an interesting read.

'Political policing will not be permanently changed or eliminated, by legislation, inquiries, further regulations, or even improving oversight. History has proven that as long as economic and thus political power is not evenly distributed within society, even hard-won reforms will ultimately be reversed, undermined or diluted into meaninglessness'.

A former Metropolitan police commissioner has waded into the political row about the impact of austerity by warning that potential terrorist tip-offs are being missed because of cuts in police numbers.

Paul Condon, who headed the Met from 1993 to 2000, said the reduction in the number of frontline officers had left the police close to breaking point.

Cannabis should be legalised and many other drugs decriminalised, a Manchester MP told Parliament.

Jeff Smith, Labour MP for Withington, told the House of Commons he believes the legalisation of cannabis is ‘inevitable’, if only the government would ‘grasp the nettle’.

He also described the war on drugs as a ‘dangerous fantasy’ which ‘diverts attention and resources from the real challenge of making drugs safer and taking back control of the drugs trade from the criminals who want to exploit vulnerable users’.

Criminals are going free because “lazy” and “deskilled” police do not understand the law, a former senior prosecutor has claimed.

Nazir Afzal, who brought key prosecutions against the child-grooming gang in the Rochdale case, has said that even basic inquiries are beset with problems because police are “not investigating properly” and are “charging cases prematurely”.

Senior officers are prone to political pressure and police are “more detached” from their communities than ever before, he believes.

Britain’s public finances are in worse shape to withstand a recession than they were on the eve of the 2007 financial crash a decade ago and face the twin threat of a fresh downturn and Brexit, the Treasury’s independent forecaster has warned.

The Office for Budget Responsibility – the UK’s fiscal watchdog – said another recession was inevitable at some point and that Theresa May’s failure to win a parliamentary majority in last month’s election left the public finances more vulnerable to being blown off course than they were in 2007.

Britain’s public finances are in worse shape to withstand a recession than they were on the eve of the 2007 financial crash a decade ago and face the twin threat of a fresh downturn and Brexit, the Treasury’s independent forecaster has warned.

The Office for Budget Responsibility – the UK’s fiscal watchdog – said another recession was inevitable at some point and that Theresa May’s failure to win a parliamentary majority in last month’s election left the public finances more vulnerable to being blown off course than they were in 2007.

The teaching profession has seen average pay fall by £3 an hour in real terms and police officers by £2 an hour, while the wages of nurses have stagnated during a decade of public sector salary freezes, a new report for the government’s pay advisers has found.

The academic analysis was quietly published on Monday before a crucial cabinet meeting where Theresa May and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, are likely to face pressure from colleagues to agree a timetable for easing seven years of public sector pay restraint.

Labour will try to [change the direction] of the Queen’s Speech today by tabling an amendment to tempt Tory MPs to vote against the Government and end austerity

The party is demanding that the Government recruit more police officers and firefighters, scrap the public sector pay cap and praise the emergency services for the response to recent terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire.

Government hints at a possible end to the cap on pay rises for public sector workers have descended into utter confusion after Downing Street rapidly changed tack, insisting that the policy of limiting annual rises to 1% would remain in place.

Hours after a senior Conservative source indicated that ministers would review the cap at the next budget, saying people were “weary” after years of belt-tightening, Theresa May’s spokesman said this was not the case. “The government policy has not changed,” he told a No 10 briefing, repeating the phrase or variants of it 16 times as he was pressed on how this could tally with the earlier comments.

PCC calls for lid to be lifted on council tax cap to protect officer numbers

Date: 26 Jun 2017

Terror attacks in Manchester and London have left policing budgets that are "not credible" in maintaining the increased levels of resource needed as a police and crime commissioner (PCC) demands council tax rises.

Staffordshire PCC Matthew Ellis has written to Theresa May and Home Secretary Amber Rudd urging them to widen local tax-raising powers.

Mr Ellis has asked the Government to consider raising the cap on the level of council tax determined by PCCs – or remove it altogether.

After years of budget cuts, he wants PCCs to be given freedom to increase the annual bills on households to ensure that forces have enough officers to keep the public safe.

He said raising the precept locally by five per cent – £10 a year per household – would generate an extra £5 million annually that he could use to protect officer numbers.

Barry Loveday, reader in criminal justice administration at the University of Portsmouth, considers the role that the new metro mayors will have on policing and local service delivery.

How significant the arrival of the new directly-elected mayors for the metro areas will prove to be remains an open question. However, what the elections represent and symbolise is the Conservative government’s continued commitment to devolving responsibilities from the centre, and for policing a recommitment to a local service delivery model.

Irrespective of political party control, the elections will only further cement local policing which was embedded by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. They may also finally bury any remaining professional aspirations for regionalised policing by way of major amalgamations of local police forces.

The UK’s leading anti-terror police officer has warned that a diversion of resources to counterterrorism is leaving other areas of policing vulnerable as claims surfaced that forces are under such strain that some officers have been working as many as 18 days in a row.

In a letter to the home secretary, Mark Rowley has written to ministers to ask that money is not diverted away from mainstream policing as a result of a shift in focus to counterterrorism. “It will inevitably push risk to other areas of policing, potentially with significant impact,” he said in the letter, seen by the BBC.

Police Finances
Government to U-turn on police funding reform to protect Met budget

Date: 20 Jun 2017

The government has decided to scrap planned reforms to the formula for allocating money to the police, in order to protect the budgets of bigger police forces, especially London's Metropolitan Police, ITV's Robert Peston has learnt.

Following massive criticism during the general election of police cuts since 2010 and also because the threat of terrorism has increased so significantly, Home Secretary Amber Rudd will abandon funding-formula changes that would force the Met to make big cuts.

Parliament will sit for two years instead of the usual one to give MPs enough time to fully consider the laws required to make Britain ready for Brexit. This includes the Great Repeal Bill, which by converting existing EU law into UK statute will enable the smoothest possible transition at the point of leaving.

The government will deliver this while also addressing deep-rooted inequalities in our society in order to give everyone the opportunities they deserve. Taken together, the EU exit process and the government’s domestic agenda mean the new Parliament faces a substantial legislative programme.

Rising inflation threatens the returns on local authority treasury assets, according to experts in the wake of news that the UK’s consumer price index (CPI) had reached its highest level in four years.

The Bank of England said on Tuesday that inflation had reached 2.9%, more than the 2.7% economists were expecting.

David Green, strategic director with Arlingclose, said the rate was still within the Bank of England’s target bracket of one to three percent. But he also warned that local authorities with large sums still on deposit in banks would feel the effects of inflation.

Theresa May is poised to bring to a close seven years of austerity after Tory MPs warned that they would refuse to vote for further cuts, the Times reports. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister will today meet Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster to thrash out the terms of the DUP’s backing for her minority government. The Queen’s Speech, due to take place on Monday, will be postponed unless a deal is struck by this evening, it is reported. A BBC Online feature says that even if the Queen’s Speech goes ahead, there is “little chance” specific pledges on social care will be mentioned.

Police Demand
May under pressure as ministers plan more cutbacks for antiâ€‘terror budget

Date: 06 Jun 2017

Ministers are planning multimillion-pound cuts this year to a counterterrorism budget described by Theresa May as being at “the heart of the UK’s response to the threat we face”.

As the prime minister faced accusations yesterday of presiding over “appalling” cuts to police numbers, Home Office documents reveal reductions in funding to the Office for Security and Counterterrorism (OSCT).

EU judges may be asked to decide whether the intelligence services’ bulk collection of email data in order to prevent terrorist attacks is legal.

In a fresh challenge that could impact the Investigatory Powers Act, the campaign group Privacy International has argued in court on Monday that interception of social media that is not targeted and subject to sufficient safeguards is forbidden by a previous European judgment.

Theresa May’s pledge to regulate the internet to clamp down on the “safe space” for radical jihadis risks turning the web into a tool for surveillance and censorship, the Liberal Democrats’ leader has said.

Tim Farron, likening May’s plan to North Korea’s and China’s state monitoring, said the prime minister’s speech, in the wake of the London Bridge attack, had been highly political despite the ostensible cancellation of campaigning for a day, ahead of the general election on Thursday.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has insisted the UK wants to maintain a "deep and special partnership" with the EU after Brexit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that Europe now had to "fight for its own destiny".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: "As we begin the negotiations about leaving the EU, we will be able to reassure Germany and other European countries that we are going to be a strong partner to them in defence and security, and, we hope, in trade.

Police Finances
Through security and intelligence cuts, the Tories failed to protect us

Date: 28 May 2017

Cuts have consequences. In the wake of the terrible events in Manchester and the dreadful loss of life last week, there is a temptation to point the finger at the security services and say: if this potential terrorist was known to the security and intelligence agencies, why wasn’t he monitored and prevented from carrying out this murderous assault?

The deployment of thousands of soldiers onto Britain’s streets is only needed because police now lack the resources to defend against a terrorist attack themselves, the chair of the Police Federation has warned.

Steve White, who leads the statutory staff association, said police “simply do not have the resources” to manage a heightened national level of alertness by themselves.

Around 20,000 police officers have been cut since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, with budgets being reduced by 4 per cent every year while Theresa May served as Home Secretary.

Police Finances
Police Federation: We wouldn't need soldiers on the streets if the Government stopped police cuts

Date: 24 May 2017

The chair of the Police Federation has called on the Government to “learn the lessons” from recent terror attacks and properly resource the police.

He said the decision “deeply worrying” when the announcement was made last night and added this morning that the Government should instead give the Police the resources to do their job.

His comments come after research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies this month revealed the police forces in England and Wales have lost 20,000 officers between 2009 and 2016 as a result of a 20% funding cut.

Police are investigating the deaths of “up to 20 patients” at a mental health facility in Essex.

Last week an inquest ruled that the authorities had failed to protect Richard Wade, 30, who died in May 2015 after staff at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford failed to confiscate the item he used to hang himself when he was admitted.

Matthew Leahy, 20, died at the centre on November 15, 2012. The inquest into his death concluded there had been “multiple failures”.

Policing is the "number one priority" as the most powerful metropolitan leader in Britain flexes his muscles after winning the race to be Greater Manchester's first directly-elected mayor.

Newly-elected Andy Burnham has placed former Home Office minister Baroness Beverley Hughes as an 'enforcer' at the heart of a new political order which gives him more responsibilities – additionally including the fire service, transport, planning and housing – than London's equivalent, Sadiq Khan.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott may have misspoken several times during her “car crash” tour of broadcasting studios on Tuesday morning to launch Labour’s campaign pledge to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers, but that doesn’t mean that the underlying figures she quoted don’t add up.

Police Finances
Jeremy Corbyn vows to block Â£3bn of Tory 'tax breaks for the rich' and use cash for new police

Date: 01 May 2017

Jeremy Corbyn will pledge to block almost £3bn of planned “tax breaks for the rich” in order to pay for 10,000 new community police officers in England and Wales.

The Labour leader believes money saved from scrapping a Conservative plan to lower capital gains tax will easily cover the cost of his pledge and enable him to guarantee current funding levels for 43 police forces.

The Criminal Finances Act 2017 will give law enforcement agencies and partners, further capabilities and powers to recover the proceeds of crime, tackle money laundering, tax evasion and corruption, and combat the financing of terrorism.

Secretary of State "sickened" by discovery of a bomb outside a north Belfast primary school.

Rt Hon James Brokenshire, MP said:

"I am sickened by this incident with dissident republican terrorists placing a bomb close to a primary school in north Belfast. This shows their wanton disregard for human life, potentially putting children in danger."

Home Office funds PCCs to support further police and fire collaboration

Date: 12 Apr 2017

Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Brandon Lewis has awarded £1 million from the Police Transformation Fund to 9 police and crime commissioners (PCCs) for their work in developing proposals to take on the additional responsibility for the governance of fire and rescue in their area.

The proposals are expected to bring about a fundamental shift to the way police and fire services work together, including sharing estates or back office functions. It follows a police-led process which saw funding recommendations made by the Police Reform and Transformation Board.

The PCCs who will receive funds are Sussex, West Mercia, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and North Yorkshire.

Leading tech firms have promised to work closely with the government to remove extremist material from the internet and social media following a meeting with the home secretary, Amber Rudd.

However, while senior executives from Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft pledged to “to tackle this vital issue”, a joint statement from the companies after the meeting made no mention of dealing with encrypted messages.

Tech companies are facing demands from the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to build backdoors into their “completely unacceptable” end-to-end encryption messaging apps. Speaking on Sunday, just five days after a terror attack in Westminster killed five and injured more than 50, she said “there should be no place for terrorists to hide”.

This may sound familiar. Two years ago, after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the then British prime minister David Cameron said Britain’s intelligence agencies should have the legal power to break into the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists. He promised to legislate for it in 2016.

Police and Crime General
WhatsApp accused of giving terrorists 'a secret place to hide' as it refuses to hand over London attacker's messages

Date: 27 Mar 2017

Amber Rudd has vowed to “call time” on internet firms who give terrorists “a place to hide” as it emerged security services are powerless to â€¨access Westminster attacker Adrian Ajao’s final WhatsApp message.

The Home Secretary said it was “completely unacceptable” that Whats App – which is owned by Facebook – was enabling terrorists to communicate “in secret”, knowing the police and security services will not be able to read their encrypted communications.

The justice secretary is to announce plans to build four new “supersized” jails in England and Wales, creating a total of 5,000 modern prison places.

Sites at Full Sutton in east Yorkshire, Hindley in Wigan, Rochester in Kent and Port Talbot in south Wales have been earmarked for development as part of the government’s £1.3bn programme to transform the prison estate.

The justice secretary, Liz Truss, said: “We cannot hope to reduce reoffending until we build prisons that are places of reform where hard work and self-improvement flourish.

The Government must offer financial support to enable forces to buy the new model of Taser, the Police Federation has said.

As previously reported, the Gome Office announced last week the new X2 model of Taser has finally been approved and is set to gradually replace the current X26 which was discontunued by the manafactuter in December 2014.

Conservative promises to protect spending on police, sixth form education and childcare are at risk as Philip Hammond demands £3.5bn in new cuts from his cabinet colleagues, according to an analysis by the IPPR thinktank.

The IPPR believes the government will not be able to hit its savings target, even allowing for proposed budget cuts, at the same time as meeting spending promises made by George Osborne when he was chancellor.

Police Demand
Police 'writing off crimes' because they are so overstretched, damning report reveals

Date: 02 Mar 2017

Police forces are putting the public at “unacceptable risk” by failing to investigate crimes, downgrading emergency calls and letting dangerous criminals roam free in what amounts to a “national crisis”, a damning report by the police watchdog has found.

A critical lack of detectives and the rationing of services in the face of increasingly tight budgets has plunged the force into a “potentially perilous” state, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Officers are “writing off” crimes and failing to track down tens of thousands of known suspects for offences including terrorism, rape and murder, the report reveals.

Police Demand
MPs seek reassurance after police chief says not all paedophiles should be jailed

Date: 28 Feb 2017

A group of influential MPs has demanded “immediate reassurance” from a senior child protection officer after he suggested only paedophiles who pose a physical risk to children should face a criminal sentence.

Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, said police were struggling to cope with the huge numbers of criminals looking at indecent images of children online and should focus their resources on high-risk offenders.

Failing to hold a proper inquiry after armed police shoot a suspect would be a threat to democracy, said the police watchdog as it published new rules on how serious incidents should be investigated.

The IPCC said it had to keep open the possibility of bringing prosecutions against armed officers and produced guidance that said police should not be allowed to confer before, during or after making their statements about a shooting.

Police warnings and fixed penalty notices for cannabis possession have more than halved in four years, leading to claims that the drug is being effectively decriminalised by overstretched forces.

The steep fall in on-the-spot punishments for people caught with the Class B drug comes amid cuts to police numbers and a drastic reduction in suspects being stopped and searched. It also follows statements by some police and crime commissioners that people would not be targeted for personal use.

The police and crime commissioner for West Mercia Police is urging youngsters to join their police cadets.

The scheme, which is grant funded by the commissioner, is aimed at giving 16 and 17 year olds the opportunity to help their communities. It also allows them opportunities in volunteering as well as to gain an understanding of policing.

Police and crime commissioner John Campion said “Our cadets are a credit to our communities, providing a valuable contribution to helping others.

Police Demand
Number of women in prison could rise amid â€˜revolving doorâ€™ of release and return, report warns

Date: 09 Feb 2017

The number of women in jail could rise amid a "revolving door" of release and return to custody, a new report claims.

Campaigners said probation reforms risk driving up the number of female prisoners.

Figures show the number of women recalled to custody following their release has increased by more than two-thirds (68 per cent) since the end of 2014, according to analysis by the Prison Reform Trust.

Fourteen people have been arrested in connection with claims that security workers were paid by convicted criminals to deliberately fit electronic tags loosely.

Staff at Capita, which is contracted to run the Government's electronic monitoring service (EMS), allegedly received £400 a time to help at least 32 offenders evade court-imposed curfews, according to The Sun.

Fire
Government commissions full statutory inspection of Avon Fire and Rescue Authority

Date: 02 Feb 2017

The Home Office has today (2 February) commissioned a full statutory inspection of Avon Fire and Rescue Authority – the first of its kind.

The inspection has been ordered by the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, Brandon Lewis, in response to serious, wide-ranging allegations over the authority’s governance in relation to spending, contracts, complaints, discipline and culture. It follows the authority’s repeated refusal to commission its own independent investigation into the claims.

Police use of data extraction equipment to download information from suspects’ mobile phones should require a search warrant, according to privacy campaigners.

The practice is becoming increasingly routine across most forces but is inadequately regulated and being carried out by insufficiently trained officers, Privacy International claimed.

Digital forensic equipment has been used under counter-terrorism powers at ports and airports to download data from mobile phones for several years. Concerns over the practice were first raised by the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, in 2012.

Counter-terrorism money is being used to redact police evidence to an inquiry into undercover policing tactics, it has been revealed.

Nearly £750,000 from the counter-terrorism budget has been earmarked for an IT system to assess and redact material which might be sent to the Pitchford Undercover Policing Inquiry, according to papers obtained from a Freedom of Information request and seen by the website PoliceOracle.com.

Human rights campaign group Liberty has launched a crowdfunded legal challenge to the “sweeping state spying powers” in the newly enacted Investigatory Powers Act, which has been dubbed the snooper’s charter.

Liberty is seeking a high court judicial review into the new legislation’s core powers, which include tracking everybody’s web browsing history and hacking computers, phones and tablets “on an industrial scale”.

The group is asking the public to help fund the legal challenge after more than 206,000 people signed a petition calling for the repeal of the Investigatory Powers Act, which reached the statute book last month.

There’s a lady I’ve been thinking about for the past few days, even though we’ve never met. She’s the central character in a true story told by the Europe expert Anand Menon. He was in Newcastle just before the referendum to debate the impact of Britain leaving the EU. Invoking the gods of economics, the King’s College London professor invited the audience to imagine the likely plunge in the UK’s GDP. Back yelled the woman: “That’s your bloody GDP. Not ours.”

Subtle and learned this was not. But in all the squawking over the past few days about what’s wrong in economics and with the economy, her brutally simple criticism is closer to the mark than are most of the pundit class.

A “wave” of hate crimes against European migrants could follow the start of Britain’s exit from the EU, a Polish community leader has warned.

Triggering Article 50 could act as a “flashpoint” for new xenophobic attacks, Joanna Mludzinska, Chair of the Polish Social and Cultural Association told MPs on Tuesday.

“Where those people who for whatever reason thought everything would be resolved by Brexit find that doesn’t miraculously happen... there might be another wave of response...”, Mludzinska told the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Proposals to push ahead with bringing police and fire services in Staffordshire under a single umbrella body and chief officer have been lauded for driving millions of pounds into reinvestment for frontline operations.

Both services have signalled cautious ‘common sense’ support after a ten-month independent review pointed the two sides towards a merger as early as April next year.

The study by independent consultant Fiona Tamplin offers a number of recommendations and examples of how fire and police services could integrate within one organisation while retaining the unique and separate services they provide to the public.

Theresa May is set to announce major government action to improve support for people struggling with mental illness, including moves to help troubled young people and reduce the number of suicides.

The prime minister has been interested in mental illness and its consequences since learning during her six years as home secretary how much police time is taken up dealing with the issue and the very high number of prisoners who have serious psychological or psychiatric conditions.

Chief Inspector Rob Hill of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and head of service for the Prevention and Enforcement Service (PES), explains how the new service is helping to deliver a joined-up approach to tackle crime and quality of life issues in the area.

Police forces across Britain are reviewing their security plans after the Berlin Christmas market attack and remain on high alert.

The threat level in London remains at “severe”, meaning an attack is considered highly likely, the Metropolitan police said on Tuesday.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The safety and security of British citizens is the government’s number one priority. Clearly in the light of what has happened in Berlin, police will be reviewing what is in place.”

The government is to formally adopt a definition of what constitutes antisemitism, which includes over-sweeping condemnation of Israel, with Theresa May saying the measure will help efforts to combat hate crime against Jews.

Britain will become one of the first countries to use this definition of antisemitism, as agreed last May at a conference of the Berlin-based International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the prime minister will say in London.

A Downing Street statement said the intention of such a definition was to “ensure that culprits will not be able to get away with being antisemitic because the term is ill-defined, or because different organisations or bodies have different interpretations of it”.

Economy & Public Finance
The economy after Brexit: encouragingly resilient or still a case of â€˜wait and seeâ€™? [opinion]

Date: 12 Dec 2016

A comprehensive piece by Iain Begg around the economic consequences to brexit . He conjectures why the treasuries reports about the immediate aftershock have not come to pass.

Iain Begg is a Professorial Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Senior Fellow on the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s initiative on the UK in a Changing Europe.

Home Office files concerning events at the “battle of Orgreave” are due to be released next year among a cache of records relating to the 1984 miners’ strike.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, told the home affairs select committee the documents would be among 30 files planned for release to the National Archives.

The subject titles suggest at least one file relates to the clash between police and strikers in South Yorkshire that became one of the bloodiest events of the dispute. A further three files are said to be under consideration for release by the Home Office.

Police Demand
'Where are all the police?' Up to 60% of residents have not seen a beat bobby patrolling their street over the past 12 months

Date: 09 Dec 2016

Nearly two in five people have not seen a police officer patrolling their neighbourhood in the past year.

A further 23 per cent had witnessed a bobby on the beat where they lived only 'once or twice' in that period.

For the first time, a force-by-force breakdown shows stark disparities across England and Wales's 43 constabularies – fuelling claims that households face a postcode lottery when it comes to being protected.

More than £500bn in planned public and private investment is now in the UK’s infrastructure pipeline, according to an update issued by the Treasury today [05.12.2016].

Ministers hailed it as the largest and most comprehensive infrastructure plan ever, which would help boost Britain’s flagging productivity.

“This record infrastructure pipeline is set to make a real difference to people’s lives form quicker and easier journeys, to better broadband access, and building more homes for people who need them in high demand areas,” said David Gauke, chief secretary to the Treasury.

Police Demand
Brexit could draw more criminals to the UK, says police chief

Date: 05 Dec 2016

Britain could become more attractive to foreign criminals after the UK leaves the EU, one of the country’s most senior police officers has warned.

Steve Ashman, chief constable of Northumbria police, dismissed the argument of many of those who campaigned to leave the bloc that Britain’s departure would lead to a reduction in foreign criminals operating in the UK.

He added that he would be very concerned if Brexit meant UK police could no longer apply for a European arrest warrant (EAW) or have access to surveillance and information-sharing systems from their European counterparts.

Serious and violent crimes increased at more than three times the rate recorded by police over the past five years, according to a new type of measurement.

Crimes weighted on a severity index on the basis of the harm they cause society and individuals increased by almost 17 per cent compared with under 5 per cent on those reported and recorded by police in England and Wales.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which published initial findings, said that the figures showed police were dealing with a more complex mix of crimes including serious, violent and sexual offending while the volume of offences such as theft fell or were stable. West Yorkshire topped the crime severity table while Dyfed Powys was bottom.

Police Demand
National anti-hate crime campaign to launch after spike in incidents

Date: 01 Dec 2016

A national anti-hate crime campaign backed by the government is to be launched on Thursday in response to the rise in incidents after the EU referendum.

Home Office figures showed the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences leapt 41% in July, compared with the same month last year, prompting fears that the Brexit vote had fuelled intolerance.

Police Finances
More than Â£26 million awarded over the next 3 years to support 28 transformational policing projects.

Date: 30 Nov 2016

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has today awarded more than £26 million over the next 3 years to 28 policing projects designed to help transform the police service for the future. The funding from the police transformation fund is granted through a police-led bidding process.

Police computer files logging the journeys of millions of motorists since 2012 are to be deleted after The Sunday Times revealed they were potentially breaking the law.

The data on billions of vehicle movements has been gathered by a network of 8,000 automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras around the country. The Metropolitan police set up a “feed” from the national ANPR system to improve security for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The system was never turned off, however, and police were repeatedly warned that holding the data for longer than two years might breach data protection laws.

The Metropolitan police said on Friday it would be deleting all data of vehicle movements more than two years old.

Police Demand
The families from hell fiasco: How Cameron's Â£450m 'cure' for Broken Britain has achieved nothing - apart from exposing the vanity of politicians

Date: 26 Nov 2016

Grimsby is a long way from the oak-panelled conference rooms of the government departments in Whitehall. A world away, in fact.

‘If your wheelie bin gets stolen,’ says Neil Barber, manager of a local community centre, ‘the council says you have to buy a replacement. So, people don’t bother to get a new one and the rubbish litters the street.’

This bleak fishing port on the Lincolnshire coast is home to many so-called dysfunctional families — jobless households prone to crime, truancy, domestic violence and anti-social behaviour.

They are typical of those who David Cameron promised to ‘turn around’ (the then Prime Minister’s own phrase) in 2011.

Earlier that year, London and other cities had been hit by riots with crime sprees, looting and arson organised through social media — costing an estimated £200 million.

Scientists have developed a new roadside test for cocaine in an effort to improve driver safety.

The device is an improvement on current tests, avoiding the problem of false positives, and can offer insights into how much of the drug drivers have taken.

“Drug-driving is an increasing problem,” said Melanie Bailey of the University of Surrey and co-author of the research published in the journal Analytical Methods. “We want to try to improve safety on the roads and this is one way to do that because we will be able to monitor a larger number of people without wasting their time by getting false positive results.”

The government’s controversial counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, has failed to change the attitudes of those on the far right, the shadow home secretary has said in response to figures showing the number of referrals linked to neo-nazism is overtaking Islamic extremism cases in some parts of the UK.

Diane Abbott said the figures reflected “the alarming rise of far-right activity across the country”. “It also reflects the increasing confidence of far-right groups to air their views publicly,” she said on Monday.

“These figures are useful in proving what we already know, but the Prevent programme has failed to change the attitudes of those on the far right.”

People suffering a mental health crisis should never be held in police cells as they find it terrifying and become even more unwell, ministers will be told.

Peers will move an amendment to the policing and crime bill on Wednesday to ensure that adults who are feeling suicidal, are psychotic or are self-harming are never taken to police stations for assessment. It already plans to do that for under-18s.

The number of people to whom that happens has fallen sharply in recent years and the number taken instead to hospitals has risen as a result, after widespread concern about the practice.

Police Demand
Leaked document reveals chief constables believe looking for lost people is 'a waste of police time' and costs forces Â£620million a year

Date: 13 Nov 2016

Police chiefs have warned Ministers they cannot cope with further savage cuts and may need to stop looking for missing people or taking patients to hospital, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

A leaked document sent by chief constables and crime tsars to the Treasury claims that forces are spending £620 million a year on looking for missing people – many of whom have run away from hospitals or children’s homes.

It tells how constables are being forced to wait at A&E departments for more than three hours at a time with injured patients because there are not enough ambulances or doctors.

A police force has been criticised after it emerged it handed out cautions for serious offences including rape, child abduction and soliciting to commit murder.

The police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, has demanded answers from Greater Manchester police (GMP) after it was revealed that cautions were given out for hundreds of serious crimes over the past five years.

The figures were released under freedom of information legislation and revealed that the force had handed out 14 cautions for rape offences and a further 177 for a variety of sex crimes.

The first Police and Crime Plan for London had a crowd-pleasing quality, as might have been expected from the mayoralty of Boris Johnson. The document, which the capital’s mayors must produce through their office for policing and crime (MOPAC), set a list of six targets for the period 2013-2016, all of which featured the figure 20%.

Police Demand
Revealed: Only ONE police officer is on duty for every 10,000 residents at night - when the most serious crimes are being committed

Date: 29 Oct 2016

Only one police officer is on duty for every 10,000 residents across much of the country at night, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal today.

Shocking figures show for the first time that just a few dozen PCs can respond to emergencies after hours in some rural counties covering hundreds of miles, leaving the public at risk from serious crime and disorder.

Even in big cities the forces of law and order are just as thin on the ground after dark – when official statistics show most crime occurs. In Manchester there is just one police officer for every 14,000 people, and in London the ratio is one to 11,000.

Police Finances
Amber Rudd to announce Â£11 million fund to tackle 'barbaric' crime of modern slavery

Date: 27 Oct 2016

Home Secretary Amber Rudd is poised to announce a fund of over £11 million to tackle the “barbaric” crime of modern slavery.

It comes after Theresa May said Britain will lead the fight against modern slavery and called it “the greatest human rights issue of our time” shortly after entering Downing Street as Prime Minister.

Ms Rudd, who is Ms May’s successor at the Home Office, will commit £11 million to a dedicated fund for groups fighting the crime in high-risk countries from which victims are trafficked to the UK. In addition, £3 million will be available for projects aimed at protecting vulnerable children overseas and in the UK.

Police Demand
The police canâ€™t continue to pick up the pieces of Britainâ€™s mental health cuts

Date: 25 Oct 2016

In my time as the deputy and then commissioner of the Metropolitan police, my primary concerns were with terrorism and issues around diversity. But a constant problem for my officers was dealing with people exhibiting psychotic behaviour in public, which seemed to be getting worse. A main driver of this was the inadequacy and local unpredictability of mental health services.

Since I left office in 2008 the situation has deteriorated more dramatically than I could have imagined, with the latest report suggesting that police across England and Wales are now using powers under section 136 of the 1983 Mental Health Act 50% more than they did a decade ago – nearly 30,000 times in 2014-15. These numbers are a symptom of a crisis in mental health provision.

Public borrowing was £10.6bn in September – an increase of £1.3bn compared to the same month in 2015 – exceeding Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts and adding to the economic gloom.

The latest public finance bulletin, issued by the Office for National Statistics today, revealed that public borrowing for the year to date was £45.4bn, £2.3bn lower that at the same point last year. However, borrowing for the entire 2016-17 year was forecast by the OBR to come in at £55.5bn, just over £20bn down on 2015-16.

Police Finances
Home Secretary awards Police Now with funding to help expansion

Date: 20 Oct 2016

£5million will help Police Now expand across 19 forces and take on 250 graduates recruits.

Yesterday [19,10.2016] , Home Secretary Amber Rudd has granted more than £5 million to fund a major expansion of Police Now through investment from the Police Transformation Fund.

Police Now is a groundbreaking scheme aimed at giving university graduates with leadership potential a route to becoming police officers, so that they can make a difference in the fight against crime as well as supporting their communities.

Police Finances
Home Secretary strengthens police response to modern slavery

Date: 18 Oct 2016

The Home Secretary has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to stamp out modern slavery by today announcing £8.5 million of funding to help law enforcement agencies to tackle this horrendous crime.

The funding, granted until 2018/19 following a bid to the Police Transformation Fund, will improve the country’s enforcement response to modern slavery by providing high quality intelligence and analysis to assess the threat at a national and regional level, and an improved operational response throughout the investigative process.

Police Finances
Khan looks to raise London council tax for first time in nine years

Date: 01 Jan 1970

The mayor of London Sadiq Khan is looking to raise council tax for the first time in nine years in order to support the Metropolitan Police (Met) following the cut in local government funding last week.

The London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee’s Pre-Budget Report, which scrutinises Khan’s draft 2017-18 budget, found that the mayor is proposing to increase the police precept element of council tax bills by 1.99%, adding £4.02 to the average Band D property.

This will aim to counteract a fall in central government funding for the Metropolitan Police of £17.4m compared to the last financial year, the committee said.

Police staff have accepted a cut to their overtime rate in exchange for new rights to know rest days in advance and more annual leave.

The agreement to alter terms and conditions was announced on Wednesday (February 22) by the three unions representing the majority of police staff members in English and Welsh forces – Unison, GMB and Unite.

The deal comes after members “overwhelmingly” agreed to proposals put to them in a poll in January.

A specialist police team set up to investigate crimes against MPs has dealt with 102 complaints in its first year of operation.

The Metropolitan police’s parliamentary liaison and investigations team, set up in August 2016 after the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox, has dealt with 71 complaints of “malicious communication”, which includes abusive messages or letters, 15 thefts and seven allegations of criminal damage.

The Metropolitan police are to stop investigating many lower level crimes as a result of spending cuts, a senior police officer has said.

On Monday, it was reported that the UK’s largest force would no longer look into many reports of crimes, including burglaries, thefts and assaults, where there was judged to be little prospect of identifying a suspect.

The plan has been denounced as a “green light to thieve” but the Metropolitan police said it needed to balance the books.